The ex Ilva to the commissioner’s terminus, through the extraordinary administration which is a traumatic solution that has appeared several times in recent months but which Invitalia, with the State behind it, had tried to avoid. But faced with the unavailability of Arcelor to find a viable and consensual path, the government he decided to go straight to the procedure.
Last night the CDM, after a preliminary meeting in front of Giorgia Meloniin the presence of the undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano and the competent ministers (Giancarlo Giorgetti, Adolfo Urso, Raffaele Fitto, Elvira Calderone) and the CEO of the Development Agency Bernardo Mattarella, approved the draft of an ad hoc decree law which strengthens some measures already present in the legal system, to protect the production and employment continuity of companies in crisis, including the former Ilva: it provides specific guarantees of extraordinary layoffs during the administration extraordinary. The previous CIG expired on 31 December 2023. The workers involved in the safety and maintenance of the plants are excluded from the new redundancy fund, therefore they remain in charge of the active plants to allow them to remain operational. These are 1,500 employees in Taranto. The provision of the Council of Ministers still provides that the provisions, already included in the legal system, to protect small and medium-sized creditor companies remain unchanged: these are the related companies that become privileged creditors. This draft will now have to pass through the legislature Palazzo Chigi.
After Aditya Mittal’s refusal on Monday 8th at Palazzo Chigi to continue the joint venture, the government took note of the impossibility of defining a consensual divorce managed by the lawyers of the shareholders of Acciaierie d’Italia (Invitalia 38% and ArcelorMittal 62%) even though the deadline had been set for today.
Former Ilva, for now gas supplies for the blast furnaces will not be cut (Arera had ordered the stop)
The government intervened to ratify the disagreement between partners on the modalities of consensual divorce. The lawyers of Chiomenti for Invitalia and Cleary Gottlieb for Mittal tried for a week to find a solution to Arcelor’s disengagement. The final point of divergence to keep the former Ilva afloat and ensure its relaunch was the 1 billion capital increase to purchase the plants by May. This increase should have followed the conversion into capital of financing Invitalia shareholders by 680 million and an increase of 320 million to finance urgent payments. To prevent the strengthening entirely at the expense of the Agency from constituting state aid, an attempt was made to involve Mittal in the maneuver, even with a smaller outlay and the share that he would have retained in AdI would perhaps have been purchased at a later time. Instead, the Indians closed down across the board, only to then, last night, shortly before the Council of Ministers approved the draft decree, make known their own version in which they spilled the beans.
THE NEXT MOVES
«Since the Government has expressed its desire for ArcelorMittal to exit Acciaierie d’Italia, ArcelorMittal has also put forward the proposal to sell its remaining shares directly to Invitalia or to another investor approved by the Government. However, Invitalia is not willing to acquire the share”, sources close to Mittal said, explaining that they want to “continue to look for a constructive solution” even if “in the negotiations Invitalia remains in its positions with respect to the proposals put forward by ArcelorMittal”.
The French-Indian group was ahead of the game and despite having long ago removed itself from the responsibility deriving from its role as majority shareholder by no longer wanting to put in money for the relaunch, citing arguments that were rejected by the sender, it made it known: the objective of ArcelorMittal “is to find a negotiated solution as an alternative to extraordinary administration”, a solution deemed “harmful both for the business of Acciaierie d’Italia and for all its stakeholders”. Mittal will probably open a lawsuit requesting damages.
However, despite the draft decree being ready, it is not certain that negotiations between Invitalia and Arcelor will not resume today: while waiting for the drafting of the provision, the parties could continue to negotiate. And until the commissioner is appointed, a solution will be sought. In short, the soap opera continues. Tomorrow at 3pm the government will meet the unions to continue the discussion on the future of steel in Italy.
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on Il Messaggero